Mary Bailek1920s, 20s, chicago, illinoisSUMMARY: Mary Bailek, age 23, died September 15, 1926 after an abortion perpetrated in Chicago, purportedly by midwife Rozalia Ossowska.

On September 15, 1926, 23-year-old Mary Bailek, a native of Poland, died at Chicago’s Lutheran Deaconnes Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed at her home that day.

Rozalia Ossowska, alias Olszewski, was arrested for the death on October 7. Her profession is not given but according to the 1930 Census she was a midwife. She was born around 1888 in Germany and immigrated to the US in 1906.

On the 15th of March, 1927, she was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury.

The mantra among abortion-rights organizations is that before legalization, the world of abortion was a world of rusty coathangers and untrained quacks. Frankly, it’s an insult to the abortion-minded women of yesteryear to assume that they were all so mentally unhinged or utterly mindless. The vast majority sought out professionals of the same caliber they’d go to for any other cause. Thus, Mary sought out a midwife, the same sort of person a woman like her would have gone to for any obstetric or gynecological issue.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future.In fact, these medical advances made amazing strides in reducing maternal mortality in general, and abortion mortality specifically, during the 20th century long before legalization. Legalization, in fact, doesn’t even make a blip in the trend that had long been in place. Crediting the efforts of abortion-advocacy groups for improved maternal safety is an insult to the many people who worked hard to accomplish so much in the areas of public health, nutrition, and medicine.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Source:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive

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1. 1900s
2. 1910-1919
3. 1920s
4. 1930s
5. 1940s
6. 1950s
7. 1960s
8. 1970s
9. 1980s
10. 1990s
11. 19th century
12. 2000-2009
13. 20s
14. 30s
15. 40s
16. NAF
17. abortifacient
18. abortion
19. abortion mill
20. abortion mortality
21. abortionists
22. abortionists — female
23. abortionists — male
24. alabama
25. anesthesia
26. arizona
27. black women
28. botched abortion
29. california
30. chicago
31. colorado
32. connecticut
33. cover-up
34. death
35. deaths
36. deception
37. delay in transport
38. delay in treatment
39. district of columbia
40. dumped body
41. ectopic
42. embolism
43. falsifying forms
44. fetal indications
45. florida
46. former criminal abortionist
47. george tiller
48. georgia
49. hemorrhage death
50. hospitals
51. illegal – doctor
52. illegal – midwife
53. illegal – nurse
54. illegal – paramedical
55. illegal – post roe
56. illegal – unknown
57. illegal – untrained
58. illegal abortion
59. illinois
60. inadequate documents
61. inadequate equipment
62. inadequate resuscitation
63. incomplete abortion
64. indiana
65. infection
66. kansas
67. legal abortion
68. llinois
69. louisiana
70. maryland
71. massachusetts
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74. michigan
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76. missouri
77. mortality
78. national abortion federation
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80. new mexico
81. new york
82. north carolina
83. ohio
84. oklahoma
85. pennsylvania
86. planned parenthood
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92. ru-486
93. rupture
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96. self-induced
97. suicide
98. teens
99. texas
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